Re: cacatoides

["S. Ong" <sab_ong@yahoo.com>]

are killies hard to come by? b/c i've never seen any
around in the LFS here.

--- Frauley/Elson <fraulels@minet.ca> wrote:
> Hi,
> There are a couple of points I'd like to make about
> your cacatuoides:
> first, Bob said you would need at least a 10 gallon.
> I'd say a 15,
> minimum. The charm of these fish isn't just their
> looks, it's their
> behavior. With no room to move, they just aren't
> going to be worth
> watching.
> Second, that's a bad environment for the fish. Never
> resort to chemicals
> unless you know exactly why, or unless you are set
> up to gradually and
> methodically learn how they work. You have to at
> least use a test kit,
> see your starting point and adjust your water
> accordingly. Your fish are
> lucky to be alive in a chemical soup.
> Third, the smaller the body of water, the more
> unstable it is. In the
> short term, while you either hunt for a bigger tank
> or a new home for
> your apistos, I would lay off the pH chemicals and
> do water changes at
> least twice a week (in a 3 gallon). In a 15, you'd
> be fine with every 2
> weeks.
> I keep killifish, famous for their small tank needs.
> I have some 2.5
> gallon tanks in which I will keep juvenile pairs.
> Their waste output is
> maybe 10 percent of what one cacatuoides will
> produce. They may spend a
> few weeks in a 2.5 until I can get them to a bigger
> tank, but even for
> them, tanks that small can be a problem.
> I'm not trying to be a pain here - there are some
> older books that say
> we can keep apistos in smaller tanks, but they
> aren't works that
> emphasize behavior, and they don't make it clear how
> much work keeping
> apistos in a small tank is. We live and learn, but
> while we're learning,
> we should offer the same option to our fish.
> Gary
> 
> 
>
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